canpalnetgathers Canadians of all backgrounds who support the human, democratic, and national rights of the Palestinian people.

canpalnetaims to change the policies and actions of the Canadian government so that these come to support the rights of the Palestinian people.

canpalnetguides itself by United Nations resolutions affirming Palestinians' right of return and calling for an end to the Israeli occupation. CANPALNET similarly guides itself by accumulated international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, which upholds the equal worth and dignity of persons regardless of their ethnic or religious identity, and which affirms democratic rights and opposes apartheid structures.

canpalnetworks for the national co-ordination of solidarity work.

When the people of South Africa fought against apartheid, Canadians of every background, every ethnicity and colour, gave their support. We saw it as every Canadian's responsibility to change our government's policy, until Ottawa too opposed the injustice of racism in South Africa.

When East Timorese fought for their national independence from the Indonesian occupation,Canadians didn't stand aside because they weren't of Timorese or Indonesian background. We understood it as a matter of justice and the responsibility of us all to change our government's support for the Indonesian government.

Now the Palestinian people are struggling,in the most difficult of circumstances, facing intensified Israeli military repression, still expanding settlements, more land seizures, collective punishment, and the even further division of the West Bank and Gaza into segregated apartheid structures.

In this new crisis situation it is necessary for Canadians from all backgrounds to help protect the lives, homes, and land of Palestinians.We again must take up our responsibility to ensure the policy of the Canadian government supports the human, democratic and national rights of the Palestinian people.

The Canadian government was friendly toward the South African apartheid regime for a long time; the Canadian government was supportive of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor also for a long time.Today it pretends there can be an "even-handedness" between the stone thrower and the tank.

The Canadian government policy toward the Palestinians must be changed, as it eventually was changed toward apartheid and Indonesian occupation of East Timor. International law and major United Nations resolutions provide clear guidelines for solidarity work.

These laws and resolutions are an alternative to the process called "peace" that since Oslo has reduced laws and human rights to a matter of haggling between parties of grossly unequal power. At the end of the Second World War, on the basis of the horrors imposed by the invading, conquering and occupying army of Germany, international laws were drafted and approved by almost all nations, including Canada and Israel.

But our government has not called for Israel to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention when it comes to Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. We must bring our government to do so.

The United Nations Security Council and General Assembly have called on Israel to end its occupation of the territories it invaded in June 1967 (the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem). We must press our government to work for the enforcement of this resolution.

Palestinians in the hundreds of thousands have been dispossessed of their homes and land and made stateless refugees by Israeli military occupation. The United Nations passed a resolution, as early as 1948, consistently reaffirmed that Palestinian refugees have the right to return to their homes and lands. The Canadian government has been acting in open defiance of this elementary justice.

Armed power can dispossess; it can humiliate those living under occupation. But the anger this sows cannot be extinguished by more dispossession and more humiliation and more killing. Peace is impossible without justice.

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

It is the conviction of Canpalnet that there are many and varied pathways that can and do bring Canadians to a simple conclusion; namely, that Israel's occupation must be ended, for elementary justice, and to salvage the humanity of all.

To illustrate this, a diverse and distinguished panel of speakers assembled in Vancouver at a press conference on June 6th to express their opposition to Israel’s 40 year occupation of Palestinian lands, and to call for the government of Canada to take action against that occupation and in support of human rights and international law. The conference took place in the Bank of Nova Scotia Room at Simon Fraser University’s Harbour Centre campus in downtown Vancouver.

Dr. Naseer Aruri, noted Palestinian intellectual and prolific author, was a special guest. Born in Jerusalem, now Emeritus Chancellor Professor at the University of Massachussetts, he has been a member of the international board of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (USA), and Palestinian human rights groups. His most recent work is Dishonest Broker: The U.S. Role in Israel and Palestine.

A statement of support was sent by the all-party parliamentary group in Ottawa, the Canada Palestine Parliamentary Association.

That message and the statements of the panelists (listed below) are posted on this site.